Spain is bracing for another sweltering end to May, with the mercury in southern parts of the country set to hit 40C (104F) as high-pressure areas and a mass of hot, dry air bring temperatures more than 10C above the seasonal norm.
The high temperatures come almost exactly three years after some areas of Spain experienced their hottest May since records began and the temperature at Seville airport reached 41C.
“The last week of May will see a high-temperature episode across a good part of the peninsula, with the kind of temperatures normally seen in high summer, especially from Wednesday,” said Rubén del Campo, a spokesperson for Spain’s meteorological office, Aemet.
“In some southern parts of the peninsula, we could see maximum temperatures of more than 40C, and the temperature won’t drop below 20C in that region or in Mediterranean areas. We’re talking about maximum temperatures that are between five and 10 degrees above normal for this time of year. In some areas, the temperatures will be more than 10 degrees above normal on Thursday.”
Del Campo said the high temperatures were down to the presence of high-pressure areas over the peninsula – “which guarantee stable weather with few clouds and a lot of sun” – and the arrival of a mass of dry, warm air over the peninsula from North Africa.
He added that the most affected areas would be south-east Spain, its central region, and the Ebro Valley in the north-east of the country. Temperatures on the two hottest days this week – probably Thursday and Friday – are forecast to reach 35C in central and northern areas and 40C along the Guadalquivir River in Andalucía.
The hot spell is forecast to last until at least Saturday, when atmospheric instability could bring clouds, dust clouds, and a lowering of temperatures.
Spain recorded its highest ever temperature in August 2021, when the mercury in the Andalucían town of Montoro, near Córdoba, reached 47.4C.
A 2022 Aemet study found that the arrival of 30C temperatures across Spain and the Balearic islands had come an average of 20 to 40 days earlier over the past 71 years. “The summer is eating up the spring,” Del Campo told El País at the time.
“What’s happening fits perfectly with a situation where you have a warmer planet,” he said, adding that the rise in temperatures was a “direct and palpable [consequence] of climate change … The climate in Spain isn’t the one we used to know. It’s got more extreme.”
